The Pacific
' '''The Pacific' is a 10-part miniseries produced by HBO, DreamWorks SKG, Playtone and Seven Network Austrailia and the main subject of this Wiki. It's first episode premiered in the United States on March 14, 2010 Premise The Pacific is mainly about the lives of three marines, Cpl. Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge, Pfc. Robert Leckie, and GySgt. John "Gunny" Basilone. The primary sources are two memoirs, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, and Helmet for My Pillow, by Sledge and Leckie, respectively. Other souces include China Marine another memoir by Sledge, and a memoir by Chuck Tatum, a marine who served under Basilone on Iwo Jima: Red Blood, Black Sand. The series deals with the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of Cape Gloucester, the Battle of Peleliu, the Battle of Okinawa, and the Battle of Iwo Jima, the latter which concerns Basilone's involvement, and the former dealing with the involvement of the 1st Marine Division. Opening Sequence While the theme "Honor" plays, after the opening titles, we see a piece of paper having a line being drawn upon by a piece of charcoal. Eventually, you see it drawing sketches of marines that evolve into black and white sequences occasionally. This is repeated throughout the sequence until you see a marine carrying a wounded on his back before the screen fades to black and specifies the episode number. Characters The main characters are Sledge (Joseph Mazzello), Leckie (James Badge Dale), and Basilone (Jon Seda). The show is notable for having fewer character's than it's predessecor, Band of Brothers, which had a rather large ensemble cast. This is because the series primarily just focuses on those three characters' points of view. Sledge's Storyline From Sledge's storyline, there are characters such as Cpl. Merriel "Snafu" Shelton (Rami Malek) a cocky Cape Gloucester veteran, Sgt. Romus Valton "R.V" Burgin (Martin McCann) Sledge's Platoon Sergeant, Pfc. Bill Leyden (Brendan Fletcher) and Pfc. Robert Oswalt (Andrew Lees) fellow new recruits, Capt. Andrew "Ack Ack" Haldane (Scott Gibson) their Captain in Peleliu, Lt. Edward "Hillbilly" Jones (Leon Ford), Pfc. Jay De L'Eau (Dylan Young), and Sgt. Elmo "Gunny" Haney (Gary Sweet) an older marine. In Okinawa, new soldiers Pvt. Hamm (Noel Fisher) and Pvt. Tony "Kathy" Peck (Christopher Foy) are introduced into Sledge's unit, although both are removed quickly in different ways. Leckie's Storyline From Leckie's storyline, his main friends are Pfc. Lew "Chuckler" Juergens (Josh Helman), Pfc. Bill "Hoosier" Smith (Jacob Pitts), and Pfc. Wilbur "Bud" "Runner" Conley (Keith Nobbs), all of whom survive the war along with him. Other characters include Pfc. Ronnie Gibson (Tom Budge) a marine commited to a medical prison, Lt. Hugh "Ivy League" Corrigan (Henry Nixon) Leckie's commanding officer, Vera Keller (Caroline Dhavernas) Leckie's friend and future wife, and Stella (Claire Van der Boom) who serves as his love interest in Melbourne. Basilone's Storyline From Basilone's storyline, his best friends are Sgt. J.P Morgan (Joshua Biton) and Sgt. Manuel "Manny" Rodriguez (Jon Bernthal) the latter of the two being Killed in Action on Guadalcanal. Another major character is LtCol. Lewis "Chesty" Puller (William Sadler), who commands the marines. Basilone's love interest and eventual wife is Lena Riggi (Anna Parisse) a female marine who he meets during his return to the marines. He also meets Pfc. Clifford "Steve" Evanson (Dwight Braswell) and Pfc. Charles "Chuck" Tatum (Ben Esler) who he makes into a machine gun team prior to Iwo Jima. Other Characters Pfc. Sidney "Sid" Phillips appears both in Sledge's and Leckie's storyline. His changes between the 1st and 5th episodes go from subtle to the point where he has lost some of his humanity until he went home prior to Peleliu and he is later seen assuring Sledge's mother that her son will be safe. He then reappears in the final episode where he continually consoles Sledge when the latter starts to suffer from post-traumatic disorder. He is one of the only marines featured in the series to still be alive. Tom Hanks, one the executive producers, acts as the narrator of sequences that serve as a prelude to an episode and a source of information regarding that episode's battle. Episodes Reception According to Wikipedia, the miniseries currently has an 87% rating on review aggregator Metacritic. It has an 8.8 percent rating on IMDB.com, and a 7.2 percentile rating on TV.com. Trivia *Profiles of Leckie, Sledge, Basilone, Phillips, Burgin, Tatum, and Puller have been released. External Links Official Website IMDB Page Allmovie Page TV.com Page Category:Sources